“According to Tante Atie, each finger had a purpose. IT was the way she had been taught to prepare herself to become a woman. Mothering. Boiling. Loving. Baking. Nursing. Frying. Healing. Washing. Ironing. Scrubbing. It wasn’t her fault, she said. Her ten fingers had been named for her even before she was born. Sometimes, she even wished she had six fingers on each hand so she could have two left for herself.” (pg. 153)

In this section, Sophie is preparing a meal for Tante Atie and Grandma Ife. Since Sophie left Haiti, Tante Atie has changed a great deal. She has made some improvements like learning her letters and writing poetry, but she has also begun to show some alcoholic tendencies and escapes in the night (the most dangerous time of the day) to go to her “lessons” with Louise. Here, we implicitly see one of Tante Atie’s desires: to break away from gendered duties and have something for herself. Throughout this section of the novel, we sense that Tante Atie feels stuck in the duties and expectations of being a woman and a daughter. She had to endure being tested as a girl (expected to be pure), and is expected to take care of Grandma Ife (being Grandma Ife’s only family member left in Haiti). Her desires are somewhat policed but not by Grandma Ife, which we would expect. Grandma Ife acknowledges that times are changing and is willing to let Tante Atie go because Atie is unhappy there. Instead, they are policed by societal expectations (or what she perceives as societal expectations). She believes she has to take care of Grandma Ife, despite their rough relationship.

This passage also demonstrates some expectations that Tante Atie desires, but has been unable to fulfill. The most important of these expectations is to be a mother. She raised Sophie like her own child yet was always mindful of the fact that Sophie has a real mother, even when Sophie calls Atie her mother. She is never quite the same since Sophie leaves, and is presumed to be in “mourning” of the loss of the only daughter she has ever known. Tante Atie also has an unfulfilled desire for love. Earlier in the novel, Danticat introduces Augustin, who we first see as a friend to Tante Atie. Later Martine reveals that Tante Atie was at one point in a relationship with Augustin, but Augustin changed his mind and decided to marry another woman.  This is one of the only stated relationships Tante Atie has had with a man thus far, and one of only three stated male/female relationships in the novel (which goes back to the idea of Danticat’s triangulation in character relationships). We do not know the true nature of Tante Atie’s friendship with Louise, but Danticat, at times, hints to their friendship taking on a sexual nature (“…we are like lips and tongue.” – Louise). Perhaps their friendship has developed this nature because of Atie’s lack of a sexual relationship with a man. We can also look at Tante Atie’s lack of love in regards to family. She has no father figure, as Sophie’s grandfather is nonexistent at this point. Martine has been gone from Haiti for the majority of Sophie’s life, so her love is arguably barely present despite her sending packages through the years.. The only family member left is Grandma Ife. The two have a strained relationship, evident in their arguments and Ife’s disapproval of Atie’s lifestyle.